You will find that most of what I write is about the well-being of teachers but occasionally I will focus on senior leaders and especially headteachers as too often they are a group of teachers who are ignored due to their positions. A recent survey suggested that only 5% of teachers aspire to headship and I suspect that this is because most teachers recognise the workload of heads but do they also recognise the level of pressure and risk of stress. Just bear in mind that no-one is immune to the stresses of leadership. I would urge you all to click here to read the tragic report of the suicide of one of our colleagues.
You may be unsympathetic to the principal characters in this piece. They've made your life miserable and so good luck to them.You may think that they get paid enough and they chose the job so let them get on with it, but schools need heads and they need good heads. Have you experienced working for a poor head? How does that effect your experience in school? How does the presence of a poor head put you under increased pressure? Schools cannot function as Utopian collectives, schools must have leaders to weigh up the range of push-pull factors and plot the course which they believe to be right for the school and all those who sail within her!
Doing your best for your staff is demanding, physically and emotionally. Must of us want to please others, our friends and families, our colleagues, our pupils and so on, and heads are no different. Heads are human (yes, they really are), they want to do the right thing, they want to be liked and they want to be valued, but you can't please all the people all of the time. And so I've adopted the following mantra (which I openly share), I would like to maximise happiness of staff but in reality I have succeeded if I minimise discontent.
Headship is a lonely job with few opportunities for emotional sharing. Inevitability if you unload at work you are unloading on someone who is not your equal in the staffing structure, which can be very unwise.
I could list all the tasks I do which place pressure on me and will be experienced by fellow heads but I would be typing all day and you would be reading all night so I'll just pick a couple of examples. Experienced by me or heads I know.
Heads are responsible for budgets, and this isn't simply about textbooks and photocopying. You will all appreciate that they greatest draw on a budget is staffing and there are times when heads cannot set a budget whilst maintaining the number of teachers. Heads end up releasing staff, making them redundant. Before you stamp your feet in rage at me I know it is worse for the teacher being laid off but the emotional drain of making these decisions and telling the teachers is immense.
Heads spend a lot of time covering for colleagues. How many times have you done something wrong and thought that this will come back to bite me and nothing has happened? There's a good chance your head fell on a sword for you, soaked up the challenges of parents, inspectors or whoever and took the hit. You may have an inkling when they say "next time could you try to..." but you didn't see the furious parent or demonic inspector making the life of the head extremely difficult. I have fallen on swords protecting teachers from parental complaints, from authority officers, from inspectors and I am sure I am in the majority of heads who do that. It comes at a price.
Finally I'll mention the constant influx of new demands. There are few weeks that go by without something else coming into schools that need dealing with. A majority of these demands go no further than the senior leadership team. From time to time changes happen that impact everyone, but these are mainly curriculum and assessment demands. The quantity of other stuff is staggering. From safeguarding to food standards the list of demands seems endless.
With the exception of some independent schools where the proprietor is also the head every headteacher has an employer. They have a duty of care to ensure that their employees, including the head, work in an environment in which they are safe. I wonder how many boards of governors, LEAs, academy chains and so on take the time out to sit down with heads and ask "how are you? no really, how are you?".
I would also suggest you all read the article by Viv Grant which appeared in the Guardian in February 2015.
You may be unsympathetic to the principal characters in this piece. They've made your life miserable and so good luck to them.You may think that they get paid enough and they chose the job so let them get on with it, but schools need heads and they need good heads. Have you experienced working for a poor head? How does that effect your experience in school? How does the presence of a poor head put you under increased pressure? Schools cannot function as Utopian collectives, schools must have leaders to weigh up the range of push-pull factors and plot the course which they believe to be right for the school and all those who sail within her!
Doing your best for your staff is demanding, physically and emotionally. Must of us want to please others, our friends and families, our colleagues, our pupils and so on, and heads are no different. Heads are human (yes, they really are), they want to do the right thing, they want to be liked and they want to be valued, but you can't please all the people all of the time. And so I've adopted the following mantra (which I openly share), I would like to maximise happiness of staff but in reality I have succeeded if I minimise discontent.
Headship is a lonely job with few opportunities for emotional sharing. Inevitability if you unload at work you are unloading on someone who is not your equal in the staffing structure, which can be very unwise.
I could list all the tasks I do which place pressure on me and will be experienced by fellow heads but I would be typing all day and you would be reading all night so I'll just pick a couple of examples. Experienced by me or heads I know.
Heads are responsible for budgets, and this isn't simply about textbooks and photocopying. You will all appreciate that they greatest draw on a budget is staffing and there are times when heads cannot set a budget whilst maintaining the number of teachers. Heads end up releasing staff, making them redundant. Before you stamp your feet in rage at me I know it is worse for the teacher being laid off but the emotional drain of making these decisions and telling the teachers is immense.
Heads spend a lot of time covering for colleagues. How many times have you done something wrong and thought that this will come back to bite me and nothing has happened? There's a good chance your head fell on a sword for you, soaked up the challenges of parents, inspectors or whoever and took the hit. You may have an inkling when they say "next time could you try to..." but you didn't see the furious parent or demonic inspector making the life of the head extremely difficult. I have fallen on swords protecting teachers from parental complaints, from authority officers, from inspectors and I am sure I am in the majority of heads who do that. It comes at a price.
Finally I'll mention the constant influx of new demands. There are few weeks that go by without something else coming into schools that need dealing with. A majority of these demands go no further than the senior leadership team. From time to time changes happen that impact everyone, but these are mainly curriculum and assessment demands. The quantity of other stuff is staggering. From safeguarding to food standards the list of demands seems endless.
With the exception of some independent schools where the proprietor is also the head every headteacher has an employer. They have a duty of care to ensure that their employees, including the head, work in an environment in which they are safe. I wonder how many boards of governors, LEAs, academy chains and so on take the time out to sit down with heads and ask "how are you? no really, how are you?".
I would also suggest you all read the article by Viv Grant which appeared in the Guardian in February 2015.
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